


Compromised

by Morgyn Leri (morgynleri)



Series: Turncoat Wizards [4]
Category: GoldenEye (1995), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Marriage, Alternate Universe, Crossover, Don’t copy to another site, GFY, M/M, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-12 23:27:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18456806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morgynleri/pseuds/Morgyn%20Leri
Summary: The aftermath of one conversation is another, and admissions that are overdue.





	Compromised

"How drunk is he?"

Alec can hear James, can feel the welcome warmth of him as he slides Alec's arm over his shoulders, and his own arm around Alec's waist to hold him up.

"I'm not drunk. It was a calming potion, not alcohol."

"Calming potion and restorative." Xenophilius's voice is soft and amused. "It's a standard treatment for panic attacks and recurrent nightmares. The dosage might be a little off, since I was estimating how many of Pandora's draughts needed to be in the tea to dose Trevelyan."

"Panic attack?"

There's a thread of worry under the calm tone of James's voice, but Alec doubts Xenophilius can hear it.

"It wasn't a panic attack."

"Then what was it, Alec?"

Alec is quiet a moment, trying to gather his increasingly scattered thoughts. There's a word for it, an acronym that Muggles came up with years ago, though he can't remember when. He snorts, the concept floating away before he can get a grasp on it.

"Didn't like the idea of something happening to you."

"Your words were 'Over my dead body', as I recall." Xenophilius is still being soft and gentle with his voice.

"Were they?" Alec chuckles quietly, though the sound has a vicious edge to it that makes a faint twitch go through James.

"You should get him home soon." Xenophilius's feet make the walkway - crushed gravel - crunch slightly as he shifts his weight in preparation for Apparating. "Pandora will make sure M knows to leave you two alone tomorrow."

"Why would she do that?" James sounds suspicious, and Alec grins, leaning a little more into James. His bonded mate, all his, and tomorrow he can introduce James to Gringotts and the goblins and get him access to Alec's vault and all the rest.

"Because she's my friend." Alec shrugs, listening to the shift of gravel and the faint pop of Apparition, and the equally faint tug of air rushing into an area occupied a moment ago by a person. "Home, James."

He drifts between there and somewhere in the early morning hours before dawn when he wakes up in the bed he shares with James, the lamp on next to the chair pulled up near the bed. His favorite chair, currently occupied by a still-awake James, his feet on the bed.

"Are you going to tell me what that was all about?" James is watching him with narrowed eyes, holding as still as any 00 waiting for a target to give them an opening.

"Mm." Alec smiles slowly, glee and an unexpected joy making his chest feel warm in a way it hasn't in a long time. Not since he was a child listening to his grandmother tell him stories of the past. "Not all of it, not yet."

He slowly sits up, making sure he doesn't have a repeat of the dizziness that had accompanied that action at the Lovegood house. No lingering side effects of the potions, and he's glad for it.

"How about you start with why you needed something to intoxicate you." There's a thread of worry in James' voice, and Alec lets one corner of his mouth quirk up in a smirk. A year ago, James would never have let Alec hear that, if he'd even let himself be worried.

"It wouldn't have done so at the correct dosage." Alec shrugs. He could brew the potions himself, once he finds where Severus put his general potions notes. Alec is good at potions. Severus was better. "Pandora asked if I could let you go."

James lets himself smile a moment, a warmth in his expression that Alec doesn't think anyone else sees. "That made you panic?"

"The idea that you might leave? No." Alec shrugs. "I don't worry about that. You already made that nothing." He takes a slow breath, letting it out just as slowly, feeling the steady beat of his heart. "There might have been the suggestion that you would die on a mission."

Alec looks over at James, meeting his gaze steadily. James has a faint smirk on his face, amusement lighting his eyes.

"As I recall, when I met you, you were intent on the death of James Bond."

"Perhaps. But you weren't the one I wanted dead." And now, the idea of someone killing James is one that makes Alec feel a tightness in his chest that he hates. He knows it's a risk, one that any 00 agent accepts is inherent in any mission they're assigned. He wonders if it would be less terrifying if he weren't facing the possibility that he won't be able to follow James into the field, to watch James' back.

"I haven't died yet." James has never told Alec about his missions before they met, but there's a note in his voice, a sense at the back of Alec's mind, that it had been a close thing, once or twice. "And M seems to think I'm not ready to go back into the field yet. She won't tell me why."

Alec grimaces, thinking back to the meeting the day before yesterday with M. "She may be worried about you being compromised."

"Because of you?" James watches him for a long moment. "No more than I was with Vesper."

Vesper is a name Alec doesn't recognize, one that James hasn't mentioned before. Associated with a mission, then, and Alec wonders for a moment if James had been in love with whoever Vesper was. If he had thought to marry her, as he has done with Alec, even if he weren't entirely aware of the legal ramifications of the bond they'd made between them.

"I doubt she'll take your assessment of that without confirmation." Alec hears a note of bitterness in his own voice that he hadn't intended, the same annoyance welling up at the knowledge that Medical won't clear him for field missions, no matter that M has decided to drag him back to MI6.

James frowns a little, watching him silently, curiosity and concern filtering down the bond between them.

"M decided I needed to be returned to MI6's roster. Medical doesn't seem to agree with her." Alec shrugs, sliding to the edge of the bed, his right knee pressing against James' right ankle. "At least not enough to clear me for field missions."

Never mind 00 missions, which Alec doubts he will see again, whatever M intends. She can't possibly trust him with so little of a leash; certainly Alec wouldn't do so in her place. No matter who betrayed who first, he had already shown he wouldn't hesitate to make himself a nightmare for MI6 if he felt he had cause, and how could they trust he wouldn't find cause in the littlest things?

"Then we'll have to make sure they do." James shrugs, a proper smirk spreading across his face that makes Alec grin, sharp and vicious.


End file.
